Mahdi Masmoudi

Xuyang Li, Hamed Bolandi, Mahdi Masmoudi et al.

Structural health monitoring (SHM) ensures the safety and longevity of structures like buildings and bridges. As the volume and scale of structures and the impact of their failure continue to grow, there is a dire need for SHM techniques that are scalable, inexpensive, can operate passively without human intervention, and are customized for each mechanical structure without the need for complex baseline models. We present MIDAS, a novel "deploy-and-forget" approach for automated detection and localization of damage in structures. It is a synergistic integration of entirely passive measurements from inexpensive sensors, data compression, and a mechanics-informed autoencoder. Once deployed, MIDAS continuously learns and adapts a bespoke baseline model for each structure, learning from its undamaged state's response characteristics. After learning from just 3 hours of data, it can autonomously detect and localize different types of unforeseen damage. Results from numerical simulations and experiments indicate that incorporating the mechanical characteristics into the autoencoder allows for up to a 35% improvement in the detection and localization of minor damage over a standard autoencoder. Our approach holds significant promise for reducing human intervention and inspection costs while enabling proactive and preventive maintenance strategies. This will extend the lifespan, reliability, and sustainability of civil infrastructures.

Xuyang Li, Mahdi Masmoudi, Rami Gharbi et al.

Parameterized partial differential equations (PDEs) underpin the mathematical modeling of complex systems in diverse domains, including engineering, healthcare, and physics. A central challenge in using PDEs for real-world applications is to accurately infer the parameters, particularly when the parameters exhibit non-linear and spatiotemporal variations. Existing parameter estimation methods, such as sparse identification and physics-informed neural networks (PINNs), struggle in such cases, especially with nonlinear dynamics, multiphysics interactions, or limited observations of the system response. To address these challenges, we introduce Neptune, a general-purpose method capable of inferring parameter fields from sparse measurements of system responses. Neptune employs independent coordinate neural networks to continuously represent each parameter field in physical space or in state variables. Across various physical and biomedical problems, where direct parameter measurements are prohibitively expensive or unattainable, Neptune significantly outperforms existing methods, achieving robust parameter estimation from as few as 50 observations, reducing parameter estimation errors by two orders of magnitude and dynamic response prediction errors by a factor of ten compared to PINNs. Furthermore, Neptune exhibits superior extrapolation capabilities, enabling accurate predictions in regimes beyond training data where PINN fail. By facilitating reliable and data-efficient parameter inference, Neptune promises broad transformative impacts in engineering, healthcare, and beyond.